Random Sunday #6: No-Maj and Black Hermione?

Hello, and happy Sunday! It’s been a good month since I made one of these posts, and awhile since I made a post in general that wasn’t a review. So hello! I hope you’re having a wonderful and safe holiday season. Do you have any snow where you live? Normally we have tons by now where I am, but we’ve been lucky (lucky according to my mom, deprived according to me) and not had any snow this winter. According to the ever-reliable weatherman, that’s all going to change tomorrow. We’ll see what happens.
So if you’re like me, you spend your weekend stalking the queen (read: J.K. Rowling) on Twitter, and you’re always looking to see when she’s going to announce that coveted eighth book. No such luck yet.
However, she is constantly confirming and pushing aside different rumors about characters and other happenings in the Harry Potter series. It’s always exciting to get new news on the series, but sometimes this new information completely conflicts with what we previously believed about the beloved books, which can be hard to accept.
The first big reveal that J.K. Rowling made (and although it wasn’t made via Twitter, it did spark a lot of drama on the Twittersphere) is that “muggle” isn’t the correct term for non-magical folk in the United States. Here in America, we refer to them as “no-maj”. WHAT? This enraged many fans – including myself – and Americans who found themselves going from muggles to no-maj would be better described as no-mad, am I right? Or… yes-mad… because they were very upset.
I tried.
I mean, come on Jo. If we can’t be wizards, at least let us be muggles.
Apparently the American version of the word is going to be more prominent in the film – as it takes place in New York – so maybe it will grow on us.
No-maj, however, is old news. Harry Potter and the Cursed Child is going to be the eighth Harry Potter story taking place in the same time period as the epilogue of the last book, but this story is going to be in play form. The casting for the production was just released, and the reveal of the people playing Harry, Ron, and Hermione caused some ripples on Twitter.Everyone was shocked that the play would feature a “black Hermione”, because that’s not the way she was portrayed in the books, movies, or illustrated editions of the books. It was especially shocking because J.K. Rowling allegedly played a large role in the casting of the play.
A fan tweeted about wanting to know how J.K. Rowling felt about the casting of Hermione, and Rowling replied saying, “Canon: brown eyes, frizzy hair, and very clever. White skin was never specified. Rowling loves black Hermione.”
The legions of Harry Potter fans that were shocked by this went to investigate, and many people were quick to quote a line from Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban that reads, “Hermione’s white face was sticking out from behind a tree.”
Another Twitterer quoted Rowling’s tweet about her thoughts on the casting, saying, “Would have been useful [if] you mentioned that before the casting for the movies was made.”, to which Jo replied, “Writers. Don’t. Cast. Movies. Ask. John. Green.”
It’s kind of unclear if this was how J.K. Rowling always pictured Hermione, or if she’s just encouraging people to picture her how they want to and be open to new interpretations of her character’s appearance.
In new adaptations of books, things can’t always be exactly how we imagined them. Can we talk about the fact that for the movies, Peeves went from being a semi-transparent ghost to be so invisible that he wasn’t included in the films at all? Noma Dumezweni wouldn’t have been casted if she wasn’t going to make a fantastic Hermione, and I’m sure the play won’t disappoint.

So what are all of your thoughts on this? Like every piece of Harry Potter news, it just makes me want to reread the books again. Leave all of your thoughts in the comments!
It feels kind of weird that this Random Sunday actually stuck to one main topic. I was thinking about saving this for a “What’s Up Wednesday” post, but I thought it was interesting enough to have its own post dedicated to it.
Enjoy the rest of your weekend, and thanks for reading! 🙂

8 thoughts on “Random Sunday #6: No-Maj and Black Hermione?”

I am excited for Harry Potter and The Cursed Child but at the same time the series is so perfect that I don’t want it to change? I want to live in the world of Hogwarts forever and I’m not really ready for adult Harry, Ron and Hermione. As for black Hermione I don’t really have a problem, it’s a change but skintone doesn’t really feel important to me. Oh yes, and sorry Jo, but non-maj is such a stupid word, at least non-magical, non-maj, non-maj. Okay, I’ll calm down and just be thankful I’m a British muggle. Great post by the way 🙂

I feel the same way about the play! I also feel like that since it is a play, not all of the fans are going to be able to easily see it and get the full effect of this new addition to the series. We’ll see what happens.
I also agree about Hermione. It’s not as if Rowling changed her personality or interests all of a sudden, and said that she only pretended to be smart for attention or something like that.
No-maj is the worst. Not only do Americans get the uglier versions of the covers, but now they don’t get to be muggles?
Thank you for your comment! 🙂

I know it really sucks! And hopefully they will put the play on DVD so we can all watch it. I think it’s cool how they are making Harry Potter theatrical as I have always been in love with Drama so I guess I’ll just have to see how it turns out 🙂 And it’s okay, I love your blog!

I’m glad you that there will be some diversity in race with “Black Hermione!” As for the change from muggle to no-maj, I personally will still use muggle! I kind of wish Harry Potter and the Cursed Child was another movie and not a play so everyone could see it.

I like the added diversity as well! And I agree that maybe it should’ve been a movie… or at least that they would sell the script for the play! J.K. Rowling said that she wrote all of it, so I’d definitely like to read it! 🙂

Honestly, I’m scared to find out what Canadians call non wizards 😉
I honestly don’t think a black Hermoine is uber weird. I mean, I’m more freaked out she’s an adult then the fact that she’s black 😀
I loved this post btw ❤
~Sarah

Thank you!
That’s a fantastic point! I think that a lot of people are blowing it way out of proportion because they can’t stand when things aren’t exactly like they pictured it. I don’t know if Canadians have their own special word, but I can’t imagine it could be much worse than no-maj! 🙂